We're absolutely thrilled to announce 5 Chatty Mynah Birds, a wonderful new St Helena-inspired children's book written and illustrated by Emma-Jane.
You can purchase your copy here. Avialble now!
It's a beautiful, playful, rhythmic counting book aimed at 0-6 year olds. Filled with charming original hand drawn illustrations created by Emma-Jane. It began as a lullaby that Emma-Jane created and would sing for our daughter when she was just two years old. We were visiting the island for the first time with her and Emma-Jane would naturally fall into a rhythm of creating songs and stories that reflected St Helena and her own childhood growing up in Half Tree Hola. It's important to us to build a connection with St Helena for our daughter, who was born in the UK, so that she has pride in our shared heritage. And this book is a small part of that.
The idea of turning the lullaby into a book came during the start of the 2020 pandemic, sketching out the idea for the book started during the pandemic quarantine, and what began as a distraction and creative challenge during that time quickly turned into a passion project for Emma-Jane. We all have passion projects that never see the light of day, but she was determined to have a record of our daughter's first visit to St Helena, and when she absolutely loved songs about the island. Turning it into a physical book helps keep the memories of that time, and the lullaby alive. Six years after Emma-Jane first started singing the lullaby, the book version of 5 Chatty Myrna birds has finally become a reality.
Filled with Emma-Jane's delightful original hand-drawn illustrations, 5 Chatty Mynah Birds consists of 28 pages, with each page showcasing a commonly found bird on St Helena, accompanded by the orginal words of the lullaby. Included are the Mynah bird (as the inspiration for the title), Sparrow, Fairy tern, Turtle dove and the Wirebird. Each beautifuly depicted in various trees and places around the Island, like HTH, Sandy Bay, Heart Shaped waterfall and Deadwood.
Designed in collaboration with Robin, 5 Chatty Mynah Birds is aimed at children aged 0-6 years old and offers a fun, accessible way for Saints everywhere and non St Helenian families alike– especially those raising children off-island – to connect with a small part our heritage and celebrate the everyday island things.
There have been many wonderful children's books written by St Helenians, such as Mr Basil George and Mr Garron Yon, that Emma-Jane is so proud to say that she's a part of this growing group of writers celebrating the Island for kids. We hope other families might also enjoy our little love letter as much as our daughter and us do.
We're producing a limited print run of only 100 copies through our newly created publishing imprint, Wirebird Press.
You can purchase your copy here. Avialble now!
We couldn't be more excited about our small addition to St Helenian children's literature. Here's to keeping island traditions alive, one bedtime story at a time!
